Interim
by mysticxf
Summary: Jack visits Kate in jail after the rescue


Lost belongs to JJ Abrams and crew, borrowing for some non-profit fun. Jack visits Kate in jail after the rescue. Enjoy!

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Lost – Interim (sequel to Incarceration)  
By Mystic  
June 12th 2005

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He'd been there before, knew the route he had to walk, knew the guards he had to nod his head to and which ones he had to avoid like the plague. Jack learned fast. His daughter was a quicker whip, her mother's instincts reinforcing his own. She held his hand and stayed close by, staring straight in front of her, as if she were walking down the aisle of a supermarket or a store and didn't care that she was really in jail.

Jack rounded a corner, following the man who led him. It was the same man as before; he smiled towards the little girl and frowned at the baby strapped to Jack's chest. He was an older gentleman, his hair peppered with grey like Jack's, his light eyes sad and lonely. Jack gave a short nod when he opened the door to the grey room with the small white table that held three metal chairs. Kate had joked about them on his first visit. If she was really dangerous, she told him, she could easily use the chairs to break out. She didn't say it too loudly and she frowned when they finished laughing together.

He pushed his daughter forward, prompting her to sit in the chair and she swallowed hard, climbing into it and placing her hands in front of her on the table. She folded them and unfolded them nervously, a habit shared by both her parents and she swung her legs underneath her chair. Jack had picked out a plain beige and white dress from Wal-mart the day before and the little boy in the sling on his chest had on dress pants with suspenders over a white coverall. He placed a hand on the warm body that yawned and snuggled against him, biting his chubby fists.

"Jack, you can sit down," the older guard told him.

Shaking his head, Jack remained. "I'm good." In truth, he was afraid if he sat down, he'd pass out. He wasn't sure which was pounding harder: his head or his heart. The man nodded and closed the door behind him. Jack knew it would only be a few minutes before she came in. He glanced at his daughter.

The girl looked up at him and pressed her cheek into her right palm, leaning on the desk. "Do you want me to take him?" She asked, gesturing towards the infant. Jack shook his head. "Do you want me to leave the room so you and mommy can talk private talk?" It was what Jack called fighting back on the island. "Do you want me to get you a cup of coffee? I know where the machine is from last time…"

"Maggie!" He shouted, then raised a hand as if to apologize. She lowered her head and bit her bottom lip. "Sorry," he told her, letting his hand fall gently onto her small shoulders. He gave them a rub and glanced up as the door opened.

Kate looked tired and the scars stood out more on her now ashen colored face. Her long dark waves were pulled into a neat ponytail and her orange jail suit hung loosely over her thin body. It seemed like she'd deteriorated in the month they'd been back. Her hands were cuffed together and Jack could hear the chain dragging on the ground between her feet. He didn't think it was necessary, none of it was. Jack watched her bottom lip tremble and her eyes water as she took in his image and then her children. Maggie jumped up from the chair, but waited until they removed the handcuffs to approach. She stood in the space between Jack and Kate for a moment as the guard shut the door behind her mother.

Holding out her arms, Kate fell to her knees, letting the little girl run to embrace her. Kate cried and laughed in one beautifully horrible sound that made Jack's legs feel weak. He put a hand out on the table to steady himself as the infant against his chest squirmed and woke with a squeak. Standing with Maggie still in her arms, Kate came to him quickly, touching his head, now covered in a fuzz of light hair. She kissed the little boy and then looked Jack in the eye.

"Hey," he told her softly, smiling.

She grinned back, shifting Maggie on her hip. "Hey."

He swooped down to kiss her eagerly, missing her. He'd spent seven years on an island where the most amount of time they'd spent away from one another was going to sleep. To be without her for days broke him. She laid her head on his shoulder, feeling his arms wrap around her.

"They behaving?" She asked, touching Maggie's nose with her own.

"As well as they should be, I guess," Jack offered.

"He behaving?" Kate asked Maggie.

Maggie gave a shrug. "I guess. He drinks stinky juice."

"Jack," Kate said, her voice disappointed.

He pressed his lips together tightly and kissed her forehead. "I'll stop…"

"They're just kids, they don't have me right now. They need you." She looked up at him and he nodded down at her, his eyes feeling hot in his eyelids.

"How are you doing?" He asked her.

"Just nauseated by it all." Kate brought a hand up to press against her head. "I'm in isolation."

"Why?" Jack sounded surprised.

Kate grinned. "Got into a fight."

"Kicked her ass?" Jack asked with a laugh.

Nodding, Kate looked at Maggie. "But fighting is bad." The little girl giggled, nodding back.

"What happened?"

"Pissing contest, basically." She shrugged her shoulders and sighed. "She was the big-name inmate; I've suddenly got all the news crews…"

Jack gave her shoulder a squeeze. "You need to be more careful."

Kate laughed. "I'm in isolation, it doesn't get any more careful than that."

"Your lawyers called yesterday." He let the statement hang in the air.

She nodded. "I can't believe they finally believe me, but I'm stuck in here for everything else."

He scratched his head, narrowing his eyes comically as he pointedout, "Well, you did rob a bank, crashed a car – a few cars – shot at another, you escaped from police custody twice…" he let the sentence fade into silence, seeing Kate's eyes dart from him to Maggie. "Among other things.." he finally said with a smile.

"It's just insane. If they'd just listened in the first place…" She told him with a shake of her head.

He shrugged his shoulders and sighed. "The lawyers are positive they can get you out… eventually."

"I hate eventually." She let Maggie slide down her body to the ground and motioned for Jack to give her the infant he'd been cradling. She took the boy out of the carrier and held him to her chest, where he stared up at her with light eyes. "Sometimes I wish they hadn't rescued us."

Jack whispered, "I wish it every day." He paused. "It feels wrong to be doing that."

Kate kissed her boy, feeling Maggie hugging her leg. "At least there we could be like this all the time."

"I changed his diaper, mommy," the little girl offered.

She smiled down at her. "Have you found a place yet?" Kate asked Jack.

He shook his head. "It doesn't feel right either, finding a home without you."

"I told you whatever you find, it'll be good. I know you, you're anal."

"What's anal?" Maggie asked.

"Stubborn," Kate responded quickly, looking back up at Jack. "They shouldn't be living in hotels." Then she cocked her head and smirked. "Besides, hotels have bars, you don't need bars."

"Is that where the stinky juice comes from?" Maggie mumbled, fiddling with the buttons on the orange jumper Kate wore. "Mommy, you're skinny, I can feel your bones." She poked her mother's side.

Kate frowned. "They don't take kindly to vegetarians. Something about criminals not having rights."

Jack chuckled. "I could smuggle you some fruit. Tell me which window is yours."

Kate laughed, watching the little boy in her arms clap his hands. "He sitting up yet?"

Nodding, Jack took him and sat him on the table. Chubby hands held onto his fingers and a smile spread on the little boy's face revealing dimples that made Kate turn away. Jack pulled his own fingers away and grinned at him when the little boy let his hands fall onto his legs. Kate sat and smiled at the boy, clapping her hands as he murmured something back at her. Jack snorted. "I keep thinking he's trying to speak."

"Maggie said 'mama' at six months."

"She said 'mango'."

Kate grinned. "Close enough for me."

Laughing, Jack sat next to Kate and played with the little boy's hands. Kate watched them. Jack was struggling with something, she could tell, so she waited for him to speak. "I had to do all of their birth certificates this week," he finally said, touching the boy's chin. He put a hand behind the boy when he started to fall over in a laugh. "Margaret and James Shepard," he said off her silence. He looked over at her and saw she was staring at the ground, her hands clasped together tightly. Maggie came over and touched her mother's fingers, prying them apart.

"I wanted to be Maggie Austin, mommy."

Kate laughed. She raised her eyes to look at Jack and he could see the apology there. The one that was always there, the one he'd told her to stop giving him. It wasn't her fault, he knew. It was just another event in a long line of events in his mind. "Anyone else come to visit you?" Jack asked, picking the little boy up and depositing him in his mother's lap. She held him with his back against her chest and played with his small hands.

Shrugging, she answered, "Charlie tried to get in, they told him immediate family only. He said he was my brother, my very British brother. Told them song five on his new album was all about me. Fugitive With the Heart of Gold or something like that."

"It's a good song."

Kate clapped the boy's hands and pretended to be surprised. "They won't really let me listen to the radio," she told Jack. Maggie stood in front of her brother and played the game with him. He giggled and let his head fall a little to the left, a grin playing on his small face. Jack looked away. He pulled his chair closer to Kate and told Maggie to take the boy and play on the floor. Wrapping an arm around Kate's shoulder, they watched Maggie crawl on the hard linoleum with Jamie crawling behind her, laughing and squealing. "I miss them."

"I know."

"I love you," Kate said, her eyes watering as she turned to look at him.

Jack sniffled. "Love you too."

"I'm sorry," she motioned at the boy who called out "agg". Her hands went up to her face and she wiped away tears, knowing Maggie would see her and would remember. She didn't want her girl to watch her cry again.

"Don't," he told her, kissing her temple. "I love him."

Kate nodded and rested her head on his shoulder. "I just want to go home."

"Soon, Kate, soon," he promised her, holding her to him. He could feel her bones; he could feel the defeat. For a moment, he felt like running. This wasn't what his life was supposed to turn out like. He was supposed to be a surgeon, top of his field, publishing articles and essays in high ranking journals and newspapers. Jack was supposed to have the lofty wife who drank tee with her pinky in the air and wore dresses and laughed at all his jokes. Jack tried to imagine his life without Kate and he came up with his parents and it made him hold her tighter.

Two hours later he sat in the car, gripping the steering wheel and listening to Maggie flip through the stations. He flicked his blinker and changed lanes quickly, only to be stopped by a red light. Maggie slammed her finger on the power button and the car was flushed in silence. Jack looked back at the boy in the car seat who looked out the window, towards the jail they'd just left. The boy's bottom lip trembled slightly and he gave a stubborn sigh.

"Mama!" He shouted loudly, suddenly, startling Jack.

Maggie shifted in her seat, glancing back at her brother. Her eyes traveled up to meet her father's and Jack could see she was holding back tears. Her chest rose slowly and her eyes watered just enough for him to feel it ache inside of him. He felt like he did back on the island where everyone he loved was in pain and he couldn't find a patch big enough to fix it. Jack turned away from Maggie and did what he did best, he put on his strong face and kept going aware that he didn't have her shoulder to lean on this time. Jack realized this time he had to be the shoulder for her and he flipped the radio back on, finding oldies he knew.

"First time I heard this song, I was drinking a soda with my dad on a fishing trip. It was the only fishing trip he ever took me on."

The little girl turned, pressing herself into her seat and she listened. "It's good. Uncle Charlie's music is better."

Jack laughed. "Yeah, we need to work on that opinion," he told her, sniffling back his weakness and putting on a brave face for her. Things would be better, his smile told her. They had to get better, he knew. He flipped the dial to where Monster Ate the Pilot was playing and Maggie made monster faces at Jamie, who turned away from her and stared out the window, his eyes growing sleepy, his lips still moving, forming 'mama' on every exhale.

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Finis 


End file.
